Battle of the Bay
La Bataille de la Baie (the Battle of the Bay) was one of the two major naval actions between the Confederation of the Isle and the United Kingdom of Kanjor in the year 1567. Prominent naval historian Jean-Marie Petit is the highest authority on the battle as well as Kanjorien naval history in general. Much of the information below was taken from his famous 14-volumn Histoire de l'Marine de Kanjor. Petit used first hand accounts of both commanders, Admiral Robert Duriès and Commodore Louis Denis Poirier, to write his full account. Prelude The secessionist Confederation of the Isle was left to its own vices as the mainland of Kanjor was caught in a two decade-long interregnum as the brothers of deceased King Albert I, Duke Charles VII of Martois and Duke Léopold III of Soulon, split the Kingdom between them. As the two brothers struggled for power, their nephew and the late King's son, Crown Prince Alphonse IX, came of age and quietly built an army which he used to reconquer the mainland from his uncles in the fall of 1566. Soon after his coronation, newly-named King Alphonse III ordered the Marine du roi (King's Navy) and commissioned privateers to begin raiding the Isle's merchant shipping and shore facilities in preparation for the landing of the army on the Isle of la Tondelle. In retaliation, the Isle began their own series of convory raids and shore bombardments but after a particularly devastating mainland raid on one of their convoys in the apply-named Sea of Lost Souls cost ten merchantmen, the Marine grande (Grand Navy) turned its attention to protecting all convoys heading to and from Majatra. As the raids took their toll, the Isle became increasingly desperate for the supplies and money the Majatra convoys would bring and in mid-August 1567 the Grand Navy gambled The Admiralty ordered the bulk of the fleet to escort the Majatra convoys and left behind only a token force to defend the Isle. The Admiralty had recently received an intelligence report that the forces of the Mainland were in no position to attack and felt confident the Isle could hold out until the fleet returned. However, this information had been intentionally leaked by the King's Navy to lure the Grand Navy into just such a false sense of security. As the Grand Navy sailed toward the Sea of Lost Souls, Mainland raids increased on the Isle. Most of these raids had the express purpose of drawing out the Isle's defending ships in order to ambush them with larger numbers. After several of the Isle's warships were sunk in such surprise attacks the Admiralty ordered all ships to remain in port as harbor defenses were increased. Until the fleet arrived with its indispensible merchantmen the Isle was to hunker down and wait. Meanwhile, the King's Navy prepared to land a small army near Afar in hopes of conquering the city and its harbor for later landings. He sent the strongest and most well equipped warships to screen the landings. Battle Early 9 September 1567 news of landing of the King's troops at mouth of Silliers Bay near Afar reached the Confederation's Admiralty. Grand Admiral Éleuthère Irénée de Villiers ordered the Grand Navy to "sweep away the supporting forces" of the Mainland's army. Commodore Louis Denis Poirier, his flagship the two-decked, 29-gun galleon Philippe II, and his squadron of nine warships set sail from their base near Atyr to engage the enemy. Along the way they hailed eight armed merchantmen of the Société de commerce du nord. As the small squadron of the Grand Navy sailed down the bay they met the two-decked, 29-gun galleon Isabelle and the 14-gun frigate Saint-Laurent perched as screens down Silliers Bay for the King's Navy. Attack on the Isabelle and the Saint-Laurent Commodore Poirier quicklied ordered two warships and three merchantmen under the command of Captain Bernard Binoche, defined as a "worthy and able seaman of the finest qualities" by Poirier, with orders to "catch and dispatch the rogues" and return to the rest of the squadron while Poirier and the remaining 11 ships continued to sail down the Bay. However, it was a trap as three large galleons and two frigates of the King's Navy pulled out of the hidden harbor at Port des roches and attacked Binoche's five ships as they began to engage the Isabelle and Saint-Laurent. Binoche's five ships were quickly defeated with two boarded and successfully captured, three run aground and surrendered, and one burned to the waterline; Binoche himself was killed by the one of the first shots of the Isabelle's bow demi-cannons. Poirier Attacks the Escorts Meanwhile, Poirier's squadron sailed down the Bay sighting the estimated 60 troop-laden transports who turned to flee as 13 of their escorts turn to engage Poirier's ships head-on. While outnumbered, Poirier was a better seaman who used the weather gage and his knowledge of the Bay's currents to turn perpendicular to the escorts for two broadsides before snaking to form a semi-circle around the first line of three escorts all "while facing the withering broadsides of the enemy". Duriès Springs His Trap As Poirier engaged the escorts, Admiral Robert Duriès of the King's Navy sailed from around Point de l'Est with his squadron of nine warships, led by the Admiral's flagship, the three-decked and 51-gun galleon apply named Conquérant (Conqueror). Admiral Duriès squadron engaged Poirier's squadron at "fifty rods' length" (roughly 800 feet) severly damaging the galleon Silliers. With the damage caused by Duriès's ships, Poirier could clearly see that he was outgunned and outnumbered. The Commodore signaled for the remainder of his squadron to retreat back to the protection of the guns of Fort Aubrac further up the Bay but was intercepted by Isabelle and its five frigate force, fresh from their defeat of Captain Binoche's command, which blocked movement up the Bay. With retreat up the Bay blocked and Admiral Duriès' squadron bearing down from the rear, Poirier signaled the remaining two merchantmen to retreat while his Philippe II and the damaged and listing galleon Silliers split and attacked in both directions. Final Assault Poirier's Philippe II took the wind, maneuvered and "fired at 'round 25 rods", roughly 400 feet, "on the lead corvette Rapide" which badly damaged the small vessel. Consequently the Rapide turned "sharply to port" as fire and chaos broke out on its small deck. However, directly behind the Rapide, Duriès' Conquérant barreled down on Poirier's Philippe II firing its bow cannons before pulling sail to decrease its speed. Simultaneously, Duriès signaled the two warships directly behind him to follow and the remainder to turn northward toward the bow of the Philippe II. The Phillippe II struggled to reload the starboard side cannon and watched helplessly as the Conquérant began sailing around its stern, with its two followers right behind. Poirier ordered the vessel to turn sharply to starboard and ordered the crew to split in half to fire both broadsides at once, however, before it could make the full turn the Conquérant fired directly into her stern at "15 rods space". As the solid and chain shot struck her, the Philippe II shuttered in the water and her "mainmast cracked and fell forward, draping her deck in the white of her sails". Despite this, her crew continued in their effort to fire back. At that instant, the galleon Héroïque fired on her from the bow with grapeshot killing nearly all of the Philippe II's crew and seriously wounding Commodore Poirier on the bridge. The Philippe II began to founder and her bow "jutted up toward the sky" the remaining crew jumped overboard as Poirier was taken, unconscious, onto the ship's lifeboat and was rescued by Admiral Duriès men. Aftermath The defeat of the Grand Navy paved the way for the invasion of the Isle of la Tondelle near Afar in Silliers. In the next several weeks, nearly 25,000 men of the King's Army were landed on the shores of Silliers Bay unmolested by the Grand Navy. Without a threat from naval forces to the rear, Admiral Duriès ordered the warships of the King's Navy to set out to intercept the returning Majatra convoy and its fleet of escorts. This order would culminate in the meetin of the two forces at the Battle of the Channel where the Grand Navy won a Pyrrhic victory, only to discover the Isle had been invaded. Category:Kanjor Category:History Category:Wars, civil wars and conflicts